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Mid-Missouri Statement by the Interfaith Peace Alliance of Mid-Missouri |
P.O. Box 268 |
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Join us in working for peace, justice and a
sustainable future.
The
Interfaith Peace Alliance of Mid-Missouri is a group of persons, who out of
religious faith convictions, are committed to working together to provide
peacemaking resources and programs, to network among faith groups, and to
facilitate individual and faith group involvement in peace with justice efforts.
The Interfaith Peace Alliance works in collaboration with the Columbia Peace
Coalition. I am an ordained minister with the Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ), and a member of Rock Bridge Christian Church, Columbia, which is also a
member of the Columbia Peace Coalition.
In
general, people of faith call for and attempt to act with mutual understanding,
and for reconciliation, peace, and justice in regard to economic and political
relations around the world. But the current policy and behavior of the United
States Administration has prompted a new and strong response from significant
religious organizations and leadership. We are all aware of Pope John Paul II’s
indictment of US policy, his call for peaceful alternatives to war, and his
efforts to achieve reconciliation in conflicted regions around the world.
Similarly there has been a significant response from major denominational and
ecumenical agencies. Many of these non-governmental, faith-based organizations
have historically been involved in disaster relief, humanitarian aid, and policy
advocacy roles, and now have taken on policy advocacy with greater intensity.
For example, the National Council of Churches delegation to Iraq this last
January returned from their visits to schools, hospitals, churches, mosques, and
humanitarian aid agencies with a call to stop this rush to war, with such
statements as “Pre-emptive war by the United States. . . goes against the very
grain of our understanding of the Gospel, our church’s teachings, and our
conscience.” These words are from the Bishops of the United Methodist Church,
President Bush’s own denomination. Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the
National Council of Churches (U.S.A.) and member of the Iraqi visitation team,
stated numerous reasons for their opposition to the war on Iraq, but foremost
among those reasons, that this war would be immoral, illegal, theologically
illegitimate, and profoundly in violation of Christian beliefs and principles.
Many Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and Protestant judicatories have
expressed similarly strong objections.
The
Interfaith Peace Alliance shares these objections, and asks that the government
of the United States of America, indeed the people of the USA, place moral
integrity over the deadly passions of nationalism, patriotism, chauvinism,
militarism, racism, and economic imperialism. The faith community is assuming
its historic role of being the moral and ethical critic of the empire. And in
particular the faith community is calling the USA to back away from the renewed
and exceedingly dangerous trends of the military-industrial complex.
The faith
community has historically developed the so-called Just War Theory, and in that
philosophical position has asserted that war can be justified only if all of the
following conditions are met: it is a war of last resort, it has the proper and
legitimate authority behind it, it is a just cause, there is a formal
declaration of war, it has rightful intentions, and the ultimate aim is
reconciliation between the warring parties. The escalating war on Iraq meets
none of these criteria. It is not the last resort, for indeed many, many
channels of international law and order have yet to be exhausted; it has not
gotten the complete authoritative consideration of any lawful entity except that
of a core of leaders within the US administration; a pre-emptive strike against
a possible threat sometime in the future does not constitute a just cause, there
has been no formal declaration of war on the people of Iraq; securing oil fields
or disarming a particular government with whom the USA has worked and supported
do not qualify as rightful intentions; and it would appear that the intentions
of regime change and wholesale destruction of civilians and infrastructure are
not movements designed for reconciliation.
Furthermore, the inter-faith community is painfully aware of the
incredible costs of war, given the experiences of dozens of wars across the last
century, the bloodiest century in human history, and the inter-faith
communities’ involvement in recovering from war. The costs of war to human
beings (non-combatant civilians), in death, destruction of livelihoods, basic
infrastructure, and contamination of the earth itself is beginning to be
immeasurable. Wars are no longer fought among soldiers; wars are conducted on
civilian populations. Human beings are not so-called collateral damage; they are
victims. Even then the costs of war could be expressed in monetary terms, as the
Center for Budget and Policy Priorities reports that the 1991 Gulf War cost
nearly 80 billion dollars, most of which was paid by US allies, but the proposed
Iraq war will exceed 90 billion dollars to the US taxpayers alone. It is quite
obvious that such massive resources could go to the support of thousands of
projects to better life on the planet.
In
addition, it is the belief of most faith communities that the war on Iraq will
not guarantee any degree of improved security for any population, including the
USA. Instead the war on Iraq will more likely increase the danger of terrorism
with potentially more devastating consequences than previous acts of terrorism.
Because faith communities are not restricted within political boundaries, faith
communities are also painfully aware that over the last decades the United
States of America has been directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of
hundreds of thousands of people in acts of terrorism, and as tragic as the
events of September 11 were, they pale in comparison to the US sponsored acts of
terror on the people of Latin America, the people of Southeast Asia, the peoples
of Africa, and our own Native Americans. Need we be reminded that the USA is the
only country ever to have dropped nuclear weapons on people, and mostly
civilians, at that. Our country’s continued promotion and use of low intensity
conflict as well as continued proliferation of the most technologically
sophisticated weapons of mass destruction does not put us in any moral position
to be critical of any other regime on the global scene today.
The
problems with current United States policy and military behavior are many, from
a faith perspective. The current policy and behavior, in particular regard to
the war on Iraq is a very serious undermining of the important religious and
political values of tolerance, nondiscrimination, justice, and freedom. It is
our contention that in no way will a pre-emptive war promote such values, but
more seriously, such war would risk an international erosion of such values. It
is unthinkable the US could even consider the use of nuclear weapons as a
response to chemical and biological, let alone the pre-emptive use of such
weapons against potential use of chemical or biological agents. If one can even
consider nuclear weapons in the same category as chemical and biological
weapons, so-called WMDs (weapons of mass destruction), then the USA is number
one in procurement, possession, distribution, and use. It would appear that our
use of deadly weapons may indeed be for the purposes of domination, not
disarmament, the control of oil fields not the prevention of terrorism nor
establishment of security; as the USA has strategically located its military
across Central Asia in intentional relatively located positions around the
Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, one must conclude it has so much to do with
oil. But once again the faith community calls us to remember that military
responses to complex economic, cultural, and political problems only lead to
more military responses, whether labeled as war or terrorism.
Yet, the faith
community is not without hope, for we call upon the administration and the
people of the United States of America to join the global community in pursuing
international cooperation and law to resolve current issues in alternative paths
of peace not war. We absolutely must seriously consider all the alternatives,
whether it be the current Franco-German proposal for peacekeepers, or new
alternatives yet to be conceived. There is no international consensus, not in
the UN nor in NATO, not in any other global body. Rather there is an emerging
consensus to develop global citizenship and responsibility for human rights,
education and well-being, and authentic democratic debate. The Interfaith Peace
Alliance of Mid-Missouri will continue its call for and its work for peace and
justice in the best and greatest of religious traditions.
Larry G. Brown 573-642-9326 or 573-884-7851 or
brownstory@hotmail.com
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